SOU economist’s research stresses family support for trans youth

(Ashland, Ore.) — SOU economist Travis Campbell is the lead author of a research paper that highlights the critical role of family support during the “identity development” of transgender youth. The study was published in this month’s issue of JAMA Pediatrics, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Medical Association.

The paper, “Mental Health of Transgender Youth Following Gender Identity Milestones by Level of Family Support,” concludes that transgender youth who live in unsupportive families are at significantly increased risk of suicide attempts and running away from home when they initiate any of four gender identity milestones: feeling that their gender is different, thinking of themselves as transgender, telling others that they are transgender and living full-time in their gender identity. By contrast, for those who live in supportive families, “there were no statistically significant associations between gender identity milestones and adverse mental health outcomes,” the research found.

In their study, Campbell and his co-authors – Yana Rodgers, a professor in the School of Management and Labor Relations at Rutgers University; Samuel Mann an associate economist at RAND Corporation; and Nathaniel Tran, an incoming assistant professor in the School of Public Health at the University of Illinois, Chicago – analyzed data from the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey, the largest-ever assessment of transgender people with more than 27,700 respondents across the U.S. The collaborating authors analyzed the responses of 18,303 of those survey respondents, all of whom were transgender adults who had initiated at least one gender identity milestone between the ages of 4 and 18 years.

“These results demonstrate that without a supportive family environment, gender identity development increases the risk of transgender youth attempting suicide or running away from home,” the paper in this month’s JAMA Pediatrics said. “Social services and community resources to establish supportive relationships between transgender children and their parents are essential.”

Gender identity milestones are common and important steps in identity development for transgender youth, the paper said, and “may result in changes in internalized and externalized stress because of exclusion, rejection and violence,” which can contribute to “gender dysphoria” – a sense of distress for those who feel their assigned sex at birth does not match their gender identity. But the authors also said that achieving those milestones “is one way transgender people achieve self-actualization.”

The paper said the mental health of transgender people can improve with medical procedures that reduce gender dysphoria and interventions that lessen any gender-related stigma they may experience. On the other hand, limiting the options of transgender people can negatively affect them, the authors said.

“Antitransgender legislation is associated with worsening mental health outcomes among gender minority individuals, which is of particular note given the recent rise in antitransgender legislation, including bills that establish criminal charges for providing gender-affirming care to transgender youth,” the paper said, citing new laws in Oklahoma and Wyoming that ban gender-affirming care for minors.

Campbell joined the SOU Economics faculty as an assistant professor after earning his Ph.D. in economics in 2022 from the University of Massachusetts. His research applies microeconomics to social justice issues, including economic inequalities based on race, gender and sexuality. His classes at SOU include Micro and Macroeconomics, Quantitative Methods and Application, Healthcare Economics, Labor Economics and Gender Issues in Economics.

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